


Prompt Me! Prompt Me!

by R_Strailo (Strailo)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dark, Drabble a day, Fae & Fairies, Original Fiction, Other, Vampires, murder mysteries, rather unfinished due to life but coming back to this, some talk of sex toys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:07:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24991291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strailo/pseuds/R_Strailo
Summary: Various drabbles to play with and to write.*On Hiatus due to Real Life shit. Will be coming back to this*
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character





	1. Week 1: August 11, 2019 to August 17, 2019

**Author's Note:**

> I started this back in August 2019 but had to drop it due to real life getting up in my face. 
> 
> Such as pain and cleaning out my apartment. I'm currently STILL cleaning out my apartment but again: Pain. 
> 
> So I will come back to this around the time that I dropped it last year and keep going. <3
> 
> Prompt notes:
> 
> Prompt 1: Was easy enough to write.
> 
> Prompt 2: Actually took me a while to write since I was gone for most of the day.
> 
> Prompt 3: Finished it off rather quickly. Which is nice.
> 
> Prompt 4: So I kind of got behind, but this one was easy when I was not sick and able to focus.
> 
> Prompt 5: Short and simple, but good.
> 
> Prompt 6: This one came out of left field. Yep.
> 
> Prompt 7: I seem to be creating a book plot. Whoops?

Day 1: 8/11

Prompt: 3 nouns - confidence, City, Liberty

Staring at himself in the mirror, Mark brushed his hair to the side. He smirked at his reflection. He had moved to the farthest city that he could when he had turned eighteen and had not regretted his decision since arriving. He had done a few jobs through his college life so far; lived in the dorms for the last two years, living in an efficiency during the summer months, and saving up. He was in his third year, had just turned twenty-one, was living in dorm apartments and was dating.

"Moving to Liberty was a good move," Mark told his reflection, getting a wink back before he smirked and walked from the bathroom that he shared with his three roommates into his bedroom. Closing the door behind him, he walked the short distance to his closet, digging around in it. He pulled out a pair of pumpkin orange jeans that had ghosts and hissing cats embroidered onto it and a giant black sweater that had pumpkins dancing around the bottom and end of the sleeves.

Getting dressed was a quick and easy process, and Mark topped it off with a pair of comfortable ankle boots before he worked some hair gel through his hair. Dressed for the night, he tucked his wallet into his back pocket, attached his wallet leash to a belt loop and grabbed his keys, leaving his room to collect his friends and roommates.

"Come on you guys! I want food before we hit the party!" he called, Brian groaning as he came out of his bedroom, shoving his wallet into his own pocket, keys shoved into another pocket.

"Why are we going to this frat thing?" he asked, shoving his glasses up his face. "And don't ask me about the contacts and where they are. I'm out until next week." Mark held up his hands with a smile as Kyle walked out with Lee of their bedroom.

"Because this is my boyfriend's first year as head of the frat? And he has three more years of head while he gets the rest of his degree levels?" Mark replied, smirking.

Lee rolled black eyes before pulling his silky black hair into a ponytail messily and just so very him. "Come along. You know that he's wanting to support his man. Just like I support you," he said, sending Kyle a teasing smile. Kyle snickered.

"Calm down, Brian. You might see that that one guy you have a hard on for," Kyle drawled. Brian shuddered and gagged.

"Now I need a pre-party game drink for that comment." He smacked Kyle's arm before making sure that they all had what they needed, including the dozens of cookies that Mark and Brian had made in the last couple of days for the pre-party get together with the frat.

They arrived at the frat house ten minutes later, the pledges helping haul the cookies into the house with cheers before they went back to doing the last-minute prep work for the party.

Mark was swept up by a large male in a kiss, getting a beaming smile as Lex smirked and lead them into the dining room where the frat and their close friends were already hanging out. "Hey there, love," the man greeted, getting a smile from Mark.

"Thanks. Looks good so far," Mark said, batting at Leon's hair, getting the man to pout at him. "How are the pledges doing?" he asked.

"Good enough to get move past base level," Leon stated, handing over plates to Mark, Kyle, and Lee, seeing that Brian had walked off to the alcohol station and was mixing up a light coke and rum. "If you'll excuse me," he drawled, heading towards the other male.

Mark looked around before looking at his empty plate. Lex raised an eyebrow. "Why is it every person that I know or come in contact is somehow gay, pan or some form of LGBTQ plus?" he asked, much to his boyfriend's amusement.

Day 2: 8/13/19

Prompt: Mist

It was kind of damp against the skin. Lingering in the air like fog, making it hard to see very far past their position. Alendra crossed her arms under her chest and stared at the gates. They were close to finding the bodies of those who had been removed from their graves. They knew that putting them back into their graves would mean that they would be free from the estate.

But currently, the rain was a fine mist that fell over the ghost town, and even into their city.

She sighed, tilting her head back, closing her eyes and hugging herself. "I hate this," she said to the sky, unable to stop herself. "I hate that they were hurt and that they are trapped. But we never did anything to them, so why are we stuck?" she whined.

"Because we stepped on the land and their curse went live. Juliana did say that they didn't want the innocents to be caught, but we had enough people for this to happen," Kyle said as he walked up to her. He was under a very large umbrella and stood next to her, making her shiver at the fact that her skin was wet in the wind without the shield of the mist.

"Yeah," she sighed, shaking her head. "Did we get the tarps up?" she asked, turning to the camp. Kyle nodded.

"Yep. I'm glad that Richard is such a paranoid bastard and brought all those cans of food," Alendra sighed. Her head tipped up to stare at the underside of the umbrella, watching the way the way the misting rain slid down the umbrella. "It's helped make all of our food stretch the way it has. How long have we been here?"

Kyle wrinkled his nose. "Nearly two weeks now. Richard is already typing up the information that we've found and is doing interviews. He wanted to talk to you about this last week."

"I'll send him my video diaries. I know that we've all been keeping them," Alendra said, smiling at her friend. "Come on. Let's head back to the campsite. I want a warm fire and some damn polish dogs. Maybe some of those chips that I brought for our last day here and the party we were going to throw for a job well done." She turned over to her friend and smiled. "I also want to find a quiet spot to cuddle with my girl in a two-person tent."

Richard gagged. "For a man so open to whatever makes you happy, I do _not_ want to know what you and Maria get up to. No. Seriously. Don't tell me," he said. "I've spent so much damn time with you lot that I can't see you in any kind of fashion beyond siblings. Much less sexual."

Alendra cackled as she walked with her friend to the camp, finding that indeed the tarps had been draped in such a way as to protect the camp fire from the mist, the chairs surrounding the fire. She sat next to her lover and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Hi there."

"Feelin' better?" Maria asked. Alendra smiled and looked at her circle of friends.

"Yeah. Okay, we havin' these polish dogs or what?" she asked. Kyle laughed and held up the bag of polish dogs while Richard held up the buns and two-pronged forks.

Day 3: 8/13/2019

Prompt: Does she know about the baby?

"So." Lex looked at his ex-girlfriend and the woman who kept trying to pass off her child as his. Never mind that with a little research and digging, a person could learn the truth. "Does he know about our baby?" she asked, smirking.

"Oh, you mean the baby that is actually the baby of a scam artist who is now sitting in federal prison?" Lex smirked as Rose walked around the back of her chair with glasses of lemonade in hand, placing them down. He handed her one and took his own as he sat next to Lex, crossing his legs. Her scowl was rather epic all things considered and made him snicker. "Yeah. He told me. I even paid the fifty-five-dollar fee, and the nearly four hundred dollar printing fee for the court transcripts," he drawled. "We have all of that information now so that anyone who comes after you for that kind of bull will be handed copies of it."

Lex smirked. "Your lawyer should be receiving the files that I told him about sometime today. Along with the fact that you hid the money that you are paid by the baby daddy," he said, crossing his legs. Rose smiled sweetly.

"You really should have done your research," Rose said. "I'm a researcher by nature. And Lex isn't one to hide the fact that you're a woman who just wants to fuck with his life."

The woman hissed. Lex snorted. "Hey, you were the one who sent the lawyer after me with no information on what happened between us. Ain't my fault that you thought that this would be a good idea," he drawled.

She snarled and stood, slamming out of the house, making the windows rattle. Rose sipped his drink and looked at them. "We really should get those sills fixed. The rattling is getting annoying."

Lex hummed and nodded. "I'll call my people. See if they have time in the next month," he promised, eyeing the half full cup of lemonade. "When did she drink that?"

"No idea but I do hope that she doesn't have gastric issues," Rose drawled. "I used some orange juice in the lemonade this time." Lex looked down at his lover, remembered that the woman had issues with drinking or eating anything orange. Like someone with lactose intolerance, she would be stuck in a bathroom, cursing her life for a long while.

"I can't seem to find it in myself to give a fuck," he finally said, getting a smile from Rose.

Day 4: 8/14/2019

Prompt: Anxiety, Castle, Ghost

"I hate you," Mara hissed, clinging to her boyfriend. They were on vacation, going across the United States visiting 'haunted' places. Sometimes taking pictures for their work and various articles that they were being paid for. They had found a kind of a mini-castle house that had been long ago abandoned, the history of the place filled with normal everyday death. But there was a myth that it was used for rituals and sacrifices, making Alexander want to visit it.

Now that they were at the house, she was feeling worried. The trees were huge and overgrown, leaving very little light to filter through the leaves. Alexander had a large flashlight in his hand, Mara holding a longer one with a headlamp. They were walking up to the front door.

Alexander snorted and rolled his eyes. "Calm down, would you?" he teased, shaking his head. He reached out and twisted the doorknob, finding that it was easy to open, pushing the door open. "Come on. Those old myths are a bunch of bullshit," he said. "The only place we've seen that is legit haunted was the Winchester House."

"And you got pushed down the side stairs for your insults, to," Mara snorted, following him into the house. She carefully shut the door, finding that the locks that would lock the door closed was nothing more than a hook that would sit over a D-Ring. "They didn't think much of locks, did they?" she asked.

"Not really," Alexander hummed, shoving black hair out of his face as he swung the flashlight around with a frown. "Looks kind of boring," he admitted, heading to the left.

Wandering after him, Mara shook her head with a groan. "I do not want to be here."

Alexander shined his flashlight around what looked like a greeting room with a frown. "I know. You've told me this nearly five times now. I just want to get some pictures for work. You know that they want us to hit this place," he said, holding up the bag with his camera. "Come on. It'll be fast and easy. I just need you to hold the lights for me," he continued.

Mara groaned but put her down flashlight on a table next to the door, allowing the light to shine onto a covered piece of furniture. "Fine, whatever," she sighed, taking the small light. It would be connected to his camera and flash whenever he needed it to, and all she needed to do was point it in the right directions. "A Mastery in the Arts with a focus on Photography and I'm fucking helping you take pictures of a spooky fucking place. I'm going to need to take a hit sooo hard when we get to the hotel," she warned.

Alexander smirked and winked at her as he set up his camera. "Look, just a few pics per room. I might just do a series of them on high speed and get a bunch in a single batch," he said, adjusting his camera.

Mara wrinkled her nose and dug around in one deep pocket, pulling out a set of colored glasses. Sliding them on, she watched as he pointed the camera to one wall, standing in the middle with him, pointing the light. She very carefully moved in the ten seconds that the camera shuttered, shifting the light over the wall.

He did the same thing with the rest of the room. In all it took them about a minute to get the pictures. Standing, they pressed together as Alexander flipped through the pictures, making sure that they were taken correctly. They both stared at a picture.

Next to the cold fireplace, cobwebs showing through, was a person wearing a long, simple dress, staring at them. She was scowling at them, as if insulted by the fact that they had invaded her house.

Flipping between the pictures on either side of the picture, it was as if she was there and then she was gone within the single frame. "Nope." Mara shook her head, shoved the light into Alexander's hands and stalked out. "Not fucking around with ghosts. Fuck this shit. I'm going to get high and eat so much Taco Bell," she called, grabbing her flashlight on the way out of the living room.

Alexander looked at his camera again before deciding that she was right. He grabbed his own camera and ran after her, cursing his luck. His bosses would just have to suck it up and send an actual crew out for pictures if they wanted pictures that badly.

Day 5

8/15/2019

Prompt: Low

"That's low." Karla looked over at her best friend before turning back to the computer screen. "He's calling you a bitch and a prude? Really?" Mary hissed, shaking her head.

Karla sighed. "At least he learned his lesson from when Julie spread around that he had a tiny dick," she said, rubbing at her face. "I still can't believe this shit though. I'm not a virgin," she whined. "I've fucked my ex-boyfriend. Several times."

"And it was good from what you told me," Mary said.

Karla sighed. "I should have kept our sex toys," she muttered. "But this is low. I didn't want his diseased ass so he's calling me a prudish, scared virgin? Is he hoping that doing this will make me let him fuck me or something?" she asked, resting her arm on her chairs arm. "What is this? High school? I thought we ditched that bullshit in freshmen year of college."

Mary groaned and shook her head, sitting back in her own chair, pulling one leg up. She rested her chin on her knee, staring at her friend. "Do you think we can get him for slander?" she asked. "You're pre-law right?"

Karla hummed. "If I can prove it. Yeah. I've already downloaded the videos and got the screenshots with me scrolling along with the still screenshots," she said. "Considering that it is fucking with my reputation from what I've seen, which I need for my future as a lawyer, I think I might have a good case against him. The bullshit that he's spreading around can fall under libel laws. But I'm not sure. I'll have to talk with my mentor when she has some time," she said.

Picking up her phone, Karla flipped through her messages and found the thread between her and her mentor, shooting off a message with as much of the information in compact form as she could. She added a request to talk to her face to face. Putting her phone down, she turned to her friend.

"So that's why you wanted to use the bot to record that thread and anything from him and anything that has your name or his," Mary said, rocking in her chair. "I'm glad that my final project could help though. And that it seems to be working."

"There's a reason why I had you put all of your information down and wrote out how the bot works," Karla said, looking to her desktop. Mary hummed. "Thanks again though. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to force him to retract his statement in all sorts of forms," she said.

"Still a low dick move."

Karla huffed. "Yep. And he's going to get fucked by this," he drawled, Mary humming.

"I need mudslides," she finally said, standing up and leaving her computer to do whatever it needed to do with the bot.

Day 6

8/16/2019

Prompt: island, wolf, fishing boat

Staring the wolf down, Marius cursed his now ex-lover to the pits of hell. And if he could do it himself, he would enjoy it. The fucker had left him on an island with a bunch of wolves, a single house, and a boat that he had been fixing for the last week to get the fuck off the island. "I will fuck his shit up," he muttered as the wolf huffed at him, flopping onto it's back.

Marius rolled his eyes and reached out to bury his fingers into thick fur. The first week, while chopping down a tree to use to fix a few things inside of the boat, which was more of a houseboat than anything, the wolf had found him. Then had stolen his lunch. Finding the wolf, he found that the large male was bringing food to a female who was youngish and hurt. Gaining his trust had taken a lot of fresh fish, but he had been able to help get her paw fixed.

She had returned to their pack, but he had followed him back to the house and refused to leave. He often slept on the porch in front of his bedroom, but sometimes the large gray wolf would come in and steal most of the bed much to Marius' amusement.

"I'm just lucky that the fucker forgot that I worked on boats for a good fifty years," he drawled. "When I tell Kendra what he did to me, she's going to shove him into a sarcophagus and shove him into a crypt for fifty years," he snorted. His ears twitched at the sounds of birds, picking up his bow. Narrowing his eyes, he spotted the large bird, finding that it was one of the large turkeys that his ex-boyfriend had let loose on the island. There were parrots and other birds that helped to feed the wolves along with a few types of natural small deer like creatures.

He hated deer meat, no matter what kind, and thus had so far stuck to birds and whatever he could fish for. He had thought about using a tank to keep some of the fish in but had decided not to do that. It would have meant work for him since some of the fish needed certain foods to survive, thus he had decided to hunt for what he needed, keeping a good chunk of the meat and letting his wolf friend have the rest of the meat.

It worked for them.

Taking down their dinner, he stood, gathered the bird along with the other one that he had caught earlier and hiked back to the house. "Just another couple of days and then I'm fucking up out of here," he drawled. "The idiot should know better than to drop a fae off on an island full of nature."

The wolf huffed at him in agreement, padding silently beside him. It took Marius about ten minutes to clean and prep half of the bird for his own dinner, with enough for leftovers the next day. The other half of the bird and the inners that were good went to the wolf, who happily ate it down before leaving to hunt for a bit more food. Shaking his head, Marius cleaned up the porch and his counter while the bird cooked, mentally planning everything that he would do to his ex.

The damn vampire was going to regret everything he did.

Day 7

8/17/2019

Prompt: Tower

The tower was...tall. Lean instead of wide but reached for the sky more than other towers. She raised an eyebrow as she stared at the glass and metal monstrosity that she had been called to. Adjusting her hold on her bags, Karla walked into the building, hiking up the stairs to the third floor.

"Tell me that the damn elevator has been fixed," she groused to Marius. The fae smirked and shook his head.

"We'll have to send the body down the backway," he said, shifting on his feet. She noted that he was looking a little more sexual than normal, wearing a pair of green jeans that hugged every inch of his legs and hips, an overshirt buttoned instead of his normal polos and khakis. "Get called in?" she asked.

"I was celebrating being home from the island with a few friends that you don't like," he explained. "Luckily we were on the way to the bar instead of there, so I haven't had anything to drink yet."

Karla sniffed, eyebrow raising. "Nice red with dinner?" she asked. Marius nodded with a smirk. "Just the one and I'm guessing a few hours ago with good food." She sighed and looked to the apartment where there were two large officers were standing on either side. A small table with booties and gloves waiting for them. There were also small brown bags for the used booties and gloves next to them, a brown box with two bags in there. "Nasty?"

Marius groaned but nodded. "Yes. It's looking like it's him," he said, walking over to the table. They pulled on booties, Karla ignoring the offered gloves to pull on a pair of her thicker black colored gloves.

"I'm going to hate this, aren't I?" she asked, handing one of the cameras that she carried over.

"So very much," Marius said, holding out a specialized mask that would filter out the scents that were just tickling her notes. Sighing, she pulled it on, being careful of her hair and stepped inside. Staring at the body that was artfully posed on a bed that sat in the middle of the studio apartment, the rest of the furniture pushed against the wall, she sighed. "Welp. Yep. That would be the asshole we're after," he said, shaking her head.

"Thus why I was called in," Marius said, crossing his arms. "We do know that this guy is a paid killer. He likes killing, but he likes being paid for it more. But no one can find the fucker. He uses so many ways of contacting his people that it's hard to just follow the trail. Last guy he used a trained pigeon to send messages to them. The pigeon trainer would then take the mini-SD cards that were put into the container and send it to an empty house. From there, it would be passed on to other people before it disappeared. He's good."

"And you looked for the pigeon and whoever put the thing on right?" Karla asked as she started to take pictures of the body.

Marius hummed as he started to take pictures of the rest of the studio apartment. "It was just a messaging service. It came from four different messenger services. The one that we found it came from would receive a box with the padded envelopes with money in the box and a list of places that it was to go through to get to the pigeon," he said. "He won't do that for a good six years."

Karla groaned and shook her head before putting in her earbud with microphone, hooking it up to her recorder while her assistants walked in, one of them holding a clipboard. "Our victim today is a young girl of no older than twenty years of age. Do we have an ID?" she asked Marius. He nodded and moved to a still open evidence bag.

"Maria Smith. Age twenty. I've already had her name called in to do a history check," he told her.

"Victim is Maria Smith, age twenty. Weight by sight is estimated at..." Karla started, keeping up her commentary while her assistant took hand notes. Marius took his own notes of the apartment, going over it carefully with the other assistant and collec^^ting evidence.

He was not looking forward to telling another set of parents that their child had been killed. And probably because someone had been told 'no'.


	2. Week 2: Aug 8 to Aug 25, 2019

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing to say apparently.

Day 8

8/18/2019

Prompt: screeching

The wailing was getting to near ear-bleeding levels, making Michael press his hands over his ears, curling up tighter into a ball. He could remember a time when the wails weren't ringing in his ears, when they weren't there at all. He could remember the quiet that had surrounded him before the other rooms were filled with guests.

But now they were all wailing, crying. Filling his head with sound as he rocked and whimpered. Someone stared at him from the doors window, the brown eyes impassively watching him as he twitched and whimpered in a corner. They disappeared behind a cover, leaving him to the sounds that were driving into his mind and his sanity.

"Why can't they just shut up?" he whispered into the air, rocking harder as he pressed his hands to his ears. The move helped to muffle the sounds a bit more, but still the wailing slipped through his hands and into his senses. "Why do they torment me so?"

The doctor sighed as he shook his head as he looked to Alex, the tattooed male slumping and shaking his own head. "He had to be moved back into the padded rooms?" he asked the doctor.

The woman flipped through the pages of the personal report on her patient. "Yes. He started to complain about wailing again," she said. "We know from previous times until this goes by, it's best to put him in a padded room with a comfortable bed. He will drink his juice, milk and water as normal, but food right now is strictly things that he can put together himself. Sandwiches, pasta salads before they're constructed. And he has to watch the person cooking for him if it is a pasta salad."

Alex groaned. "He had issues with our mother at the end there. She was starting to lose her mind, I think. Screaming a lot," he said. "I was gone for a good chunk of that time, working and going to college. It means that I missed a lot of the issues."

The doctor hummed and made notes on the charts, nodding. "He said that the wailing started after they buried her. You did an exhumation correct? Do we know why she would be attached to him?" she asked.

Alex rubbed at his head as they walked down the hall towards the main area. "I'm not sure. And yes, we did. We found her body like you'd expect after three weeks in the heat under the ground," he stated. "But from what Michael has told me, she talked about being stalked by a creature and that it was Michael who called it to haunt her."

"Was that disproven?" she asked, still taking notes.

"Several times. By me. By Michael himself. He's a null-void magically. He can feel it, can't cast it. Not a drop. It works on him if someone else does the magic, but it wears off in a few days depending on what the magic is. Magical charms last longer. But back on subject: three priests, two witches, and even a chaos mage have all said that he didn't bring anything to haunt her. And that she wasn't being attacked by anything but her own mind," he said. He rubbed at his head. "We're working on doing a full exorcism, but there is a queue. We need to get the Catholic one done first before a blessing from our grandmother's family."

"Native American's and Italian correct?" she asked, Alex nodding. "The blessing will do what?"

"Hopefully convince or push her to go to the other side," Alex said, shrugging a shoulder. "I'm hoping that it'll help her rest without trying to rest. But he needs to come out of this state."

"It'll be a week. Minimum," she warned, Alex pulling out his phone and texting his Catholic connection. "But he should be good for it in a couple of weeks. I'll call you the moment that it looks as if he's coming out of it."

"Thank you for your help and your care for my brother," Alex said, the doctor nodding and leaving to let him walk out of the care facility. She had no doubt that the young man would take care of his brother in the best way possible.

Day 9

8/19/2019

Prompt: Pasta

He was absolutely fascinated with the way the cook was twisting and laying out the dough. The man, who looked to be well into his early fifties but moved spryly for an old man, had taken a large mound of dough and started to knead it. He then started to careful twist and pull it, folding it over and over, coating it in a special flour that didn't dry the dough out but kept the strands from sticking.

The whole process went on for a good ten minutes as the strands became thinner and longer with each jerk and pull. The maker then cut them into the proper length, placing half of the noodles into one of the large pots, the other half into another. A slightly younger woman came to help him, the two lifting the metal baskets in and out of the water, shaking it and watching the cooking process.

Once the noodles were done just right, they took them and placed them into the various bowls that were going to head out to the customers in just minutes.

Shifting on his bar stool, he smiled as the woman took over the process, pouring broth into each bowl quickly, not wasting a drop before adding the individual toppings, making sure each one was heated in the pot of broth if it needed it. He was absolutely fascinated by the way the two made the bowls of soup and noodles so quickly, remembering how each dish was customized. He noticed that they rarely used the screens that held each order with any customization.

She placed the bowls down in front of those who were sitting at the bar and then placed the rest of the bowls onto two trays to be carried out to the restaurant proper.

Snapping his chopsticks, and saying "Itadakimasu", he swirled the handmade noodles around in the broth before pulling a bite to his mouth to slurp it up. When he had gotten to Japan, it had gone against everything he had been taught to slurp his noodles, but he was now happy to do so.

Eating every bit of his food, he wiped his mouth, paid the price asked for the bowl and promised to be back the next day. The man was back at making fresh noodles for the soups, a new batch of customers wandering in during their late lunch breaks.

Day 10

8/20/2019

Prompt: forgiveness, stool, football

He slid onto the bar stool and played with the bottle of beer, idly noting that a football game was playing on one of the TV's. The sound was just enough to fill the area around him without distracting him too much from his thoughts. He had found his girlfriend in bed with her best friend nearly a week ago. They hadn't noticed him since he had gone home to get some paperwork for his work which had worked for him.

But in that moment, he was trying to think about what he wanted. If his girlfriend wanted a woman, he wouldn't have minded if she had said that she wanted a poly-relationship. He had been in one before with his ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend back in senior year of high school. That relationship had lasted up until he was a year from graduating college, and they had parted ways.

He would have let her find a girlfriend and found himself a boyfriend without an issue.

But she hadn't done that. She had gone behind his back with her "best friend", leaving him to wonder just what else she had done. Staring at his phone, he opened his contacts list and sent a text to her brother, who knew her well enough to know if she had fucked around on him before.

Drinking some of his beer, he watched as her brother started to respond to him, the text popping up that what he was about to say was a long response. Sighing, he waited for the text to appear. He was done with his beer by the time that the full message came through, a new one placed before him along with his steak fries with a side of bacon-cheese sauce.

Opening the return, he dipped a fry in the sauce and chewed as he read. Some of it he already knew, that she was fucking her best friend, but some of it was new. The amount of time she had been fucking the other woman, how many other female lovers she had had in the time that they had been dating.

The fact that she _really_ liked sex and would get as much of it as she could whenever she was free from her responsibilities for the day. And if that meant getting fucked during her lunch hour by her best friend, she would do it. Or with whoever was free at the time. She didn't care as long as it was a woman.

He read that she had done with her other boyfriends. She had done the opposite with her girlfriends and had done so since high school where she learned what sex was.

Sighing, he settled in too drink and think about what he wanted to do. Looking up, he let himself get lost in the football game, enjoying the action. As the game wrapped up, he had decided that he would forgive his girlfriend.

But he was still going to leave her.

Pushing up and off the stool, he paid the last of his tab and wandered off to find a cab. He would crash at a hotel, leaving his car in the parking garage of his work, take a shower in the employee showers. He had a change of clothes in his car so it wouldn't hurt him any.

After work, he would pack up his soon to be ex's stuff and send her off.

Day 11

8/21/2019

Prompt: Dare

Clenching her flashlight, Karla grumbled under her breath as she carefully walked through the old museum. She knew that it was kept up, but it didn't have any kind of security on it or around it. Thus, it made it easy to sneak into the building.

And her friends had dared her to go into the museum while it was closed and the guards were in their shack before their rounds. She shuddered as she passed a manikin, ignoring the fact that it was painted to look human. Karla stopped and stared at the manikin, using her small pen light to really take in the looks.

"You look a lot like that one teacher that fucked off during my fourth grade field trip to this joint," she hissed at it. The brown hair was tinted red and carefully curled up into the proper hairstyle of the late nineteen-twenties. Shaking her head, she continued through the museum, seeing all of the work that was being put in to update everything.

She dodged around the work for the electricity lines that were being replaced in the furniture area and headed into the area for the founding of the town. "Small towns, lots of history," she muttered, shining her light onto the signs that pointed to the various spots. "Looking for the families. Ah, down Hall B," she breathed, turning towards the proper hall and walking around the flooring that was being laid.

Finding the room that she wanted, she brushed off the feeling of being watched by the manikin's that stood in the room. She knew that they had finished with the branching 'halls' which were just very large rooms that had been set up with moveable walls to separate out sections of the display.

Walking around the starting wall that was covered in information about the way the inside was set up and the display itself, she paused long enough to look at the map. She was looking for the wax figure of the wife of one of the founders of their town. She had been a beautiful woman who was said to have been the bastard child of an Italian man who had an affair with her married mother.

Considering they had pictures of her the man who had been called her father, and she didn't look a lick like him didn't put those thoughts to rest.

Her friends had not only dared Karla to come into the museum, but they had dared her to take a picture of the wax figure of the woman. The figure had been created by the woman's own descendant nearly fifty years before and fixed twice. The first time when a fire had gotten to close to her wax body, melting part of her body into a deformed lump. The second had been after a particularly nasty earthquake had shaken a piece of the roof loose and it had landed on her.

That earthquake was also the reason why the museum had been closed for close to a year while the family who owned it got it updated finally.

But it was said that inside of the wax body was her actual skeleton. That the descendant that had created the wax figurine had stolen her skeleton from her grave and used it as the base instead of the normal wooden base they were known to use. There were even those who said if you took a picture of her, or went to see her body, that you would end up a wax figure yourself, her soul reaching out to take revenge on those who dared to disturb her.

Karla snorted and walked to where her display was. She took her time, reading the history of the woman, the theories of who her father had truly been and the fact that her crypt was very empty. How the family wondered what happened to her body since the crypt had still been sealed when they had opened it. She took in the jewelry, the few journals that they could find, and some of her personal cookbooks.

Finished with the display, Karla walked up to the wax figure, shining her light on the face. The woman had large black eyes with equally black hair that was a fall of silk. Her hair had been carefully pulled back into a half uptwist, leaving most of it to fall. The wax that had been used to make her had been carefully colored to a lovely olive color, and a layer of specialized oil laid on the wax to keep it supple and colored right every year keeping it to the right shade.

She was wearing a reproduction of her favorite dress. It was a deep red color that fell in careful layers with a simple corset that accented the fact that she had a naturally tiny waist. There was just the slightest hint of of a pointed boot peeking out from under the full skirt, the color a matching red.

"How she got her leather to dye right, I will never know," Karla said, holding up her phone and opening the camera. She carefully centered the picture and took a pic. Lowering her phone down to look at the picture, she missed the step of a foot behind her.

An hour later, a guard walked into the room with his partner, none of them allowed to step into Hall B without a partner and headed to the back of the room. They checked to make sure that the manikins were all there before finding Karla's phone.

Wondering what was going on, they checked the last that that had been done on the phone and found the picture of the wax figure. They shared a look and missed the fact that there was a new wax figure in the next section over that looked a lot like the now missing Karla.

After all, it was well known that the family often came in and changed things around late at night. Including adding new manikin's or displays.

Day 12

8/22/2019

Prompt: Exuberant

The plants were in full bloom. They had taken to the soil mixture that Rose had used for them like an exuberant child who had been given free reign in a toy story. Splashes of gold and purples mixed in with the normal reds and pale oranges of the roses that were planted last spring.

Smiling, Lex sat back and stared at the vegetable patch that he had been taking the squash that was ripe from. Rose walked around another vegetable patch, pushing a wheelbarrow that had three full grown watermelons in it along with several melons that he wasn't sure about the name of.

"Are we stocking our freezer full of fruit and veggies?" Lex asked, eyeing the wheelbarrow before eyeing his own basket full of squash.

Rose chuckled. "Yep. There's a reason why I like vegetable patches. Outside of the ones that we don't have the room to grow ourselves." He put the wheelbarrow close to the back porch so that he could heft the fruit into the kitchen. "I know that you're already planning on making preserves from most of the fruit and only letting me have enough of it to hold for holiday cooking."

Lex smiled and shrugged. "Got to put that pressure cooker that we got for our engagement gift," he drawled. "It helps to do the preserves. And I know that you like using them in your smoothies. As it is, we have so much fruit that I think we'll have more than enough fruit for both preserves and frozen," he said.

Rose hummed as he eyed the various hanging baskets, the bushes that lined the brick walls around their properties, and the single tree that wouldn't grow much bigger than what it was. Sighing, he nodded. "This is true. I might look into getting one of those specially bred orange trees. The lemon tree is going to give us a lot of juice."

"Just means we'll have a lot of lemonade year-round," Lex said, turning back to checking the vegetable patches. "This new soil works well."

"They feast upon the decomposed bodies of their own friends and family," Rose drawled, heading in with the two melons in his hands. Lex cackled and shook his head.

Day 13

8/23/2019

Prompt: Anger

It wasn't all heat and need to hurt.

Not for him.

It was a cold ball in his chest that grew, numbing him from the inside out. He could do nothing but watch as the ice rolled through him.

She was smiling sweetly up at a man, knowing that he would do nothing. Or at least in her head, that was how it always went. She flirted, fucked and tossed men away before going back home to the man that she was engaged to. He would sit there while she did whatever she wanted and dealt with the fact that she liked to do it.

He growled and stood up. The anger was still there, ice cold and buried deep in his chest, but he knew that if he didn't leave, something would happen. And someone would end up in jail or in the hospital.

He didn't want either of those things to happen so he packed up and left, glad that he had ignored his need to drink so that he could drive home. He knew that his girl would find her way home after she was done. Usually he would take her home, but sometimes he got drunk enough to take a cab home and she would drive the car home.

Climbing into the car, he found that as he drove, the cold ice of anger thawed and became a deep thoughtfulness. He found a story that was open all night and pulled into the parking lot, heading inside. He walked out with a new doorknob, top lock, and a chain lock, enough boxes to pack up his entire apartment if he needed to, a giant roll of bubble wrap, and several rolls of packing tape. He also had various easy foods to fuel him, some of the best coffee he could afford, a brand-new coffee pot, and creamer.

He drove home, hauled everything up with the help of the night maintenance man. The guy was nice enough to put the new top lock, knob and chain lock on while he arranged the things in the living room. With a new lock on the door, he closed it after the guy left, locked the door and turned to packing up his girlfriend's things.

He paused long enough to send her a text to find a couch to crash on for the night and that he would text her about when to come get her stuff. He was done being her doormat.

He was going to break free and be happy with his life for once.

Smirking, he started with her clothes, folding and placing them into bags to place into a box. The cold ball of anger was unraveling in his chest, leaving him feel warm and calm for the first time in many years.

Day 14

8/24/2019

Prompt: Would you come to my funeral?

The question caught him off guard. Looking up from the dishes that he was doing, Alex eyeballed Kran with a frown, the other man carefully drying a grill spatula. "What?" he asked.

"I asked if you would come to my funeral," Kran replied.

Alex sighed and dunked his hands into the hot water, making sure that he had gathered all the silverware in the water. "I would hope that I wouldn't have to come to your funeral for a long time," he replied. Kran just gave him a look. "But yes, I would go." He dunked the two-pronged fork into the water, scrubbing it. "Why are you asking me this?" He dropped the fork onto the silverware pile on the other side of the sink.

Kran hummed. "Got some odd results. I'm heading to see a cancer doc," he told him. "Brandly is going to be there since they want to take quite a bit of blood," he continued.

"Want some food for after?" Alex asked, tilting his head. Kran smiled at his friend and nodded. "You gonna be off for a couple of days?"

"Both of us are. The docs want me to rest and not have to worry about losing blood on the job after they get it," he said.

Alex hummed and nodded. "Yeah, I can see that," he said. He finished washing the rest of the dishes and rinsed them off. Kran hummed and took most of the silverware, drying it off. He looked to his friend, drying his hands off with the dish towel. "You won't die any time soon. It's not your time. If you are, something is messing with you and needs to be put down," he said, pushing away from the sink.

Kran smiled at his friend as he left the kitchen. He trusted the other man enough that if he said that it wasn't time for him, it wasn't time for him. Shaking his head, he put away the last of the silverware and followed after Alex, finding him putting together a small blessing bag at his working alter. He took with an amused smile, sliding it over his head and heading home. 


	3. Week 3: Aug 25 to Aug 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shrugs*
> 
> A word of warning for a few of the prompts:
> 
> 8/26: Hole – Speaks of sibling murder
> 
> 8/27: Cockroach – An amusing take on the apocalyptic trope
> 
> 8/31: Butterfly speaks of stalker behavior and a serial killer who keeps trophies.
> 
> This week was kind of on the dark side.
> 
> 8/28 and 8/29 are happier if you just wish to read those.
> 
> Thank you.

A word of warning for a few of the prompts:

8/26: Hole – Speaks of sibling murder

8/27: Cockroach – An amusing take on the apocalyptic trope

8/31: Butterfly speaks of stalker behavior and a serial killer who keeps trophies.

This week was kind of on the dark side.

8/28 and 8/29 are happier if you just wish to read those.

Thank you.

Week 3

8/25/2019

Prompt: loud

The music thrummed through the building, even in the rooms that were set up to allow people to rest and relax. To talk without having to shout over the music of the club. It was a dull pulse, but still loud within them, the bar that was situated on the second floor getting a good chunk of it.

Bo was amused while Markus muttered about new DJ's who couldn't control their bass and volume enough to not make his glasses shake. Markus just shot his lover a look before shoving the glasses back into place and putting the holding lock on so that they didn't slide out. "I'm going to bitch at the owner," he stated, purple stained lips pulling into a frown.

Bo just smiled and brought his glass of whiskey up to his lips, letting the smooth liquor run over his tongue. "It is a tad loud. Don't they get informational packets on how loud they can be?" he asked.

Markus grunted as he moved to the next rack of glasses, putting the locking gates up. "Yeah. They do. I don't think this one read them though so we're going to have to lodge a complaint about this guy," he said. He dug out the work phone he carried around in his apron pocket and pulled up his texting service, sending a complaint to the boss that was in for the night. With that done, he dropped it back into his apron pocket and moved to wash glasses.

"Quiet night," Bo mused, eyeing the half-filled room, Markus humming.

"It's a Wednesday before finals week. Most of our clientele are at home, studying. Preparing for finals. Finishing off projects and all that," Markus replied.

"Just be glad you're finished with that shite," Bo replied, toasting his lover. Markus rolled his eyes.

"Oh yes. Now I get to do two more years for my Masters," he drawled. "At least I moved up in the ranks here since slime ball got fired."

"Ah, that reminds me," Bo said, smirking at the other. Markus raised an eyebrow. "Marius Lee, also known as Mr. SlimeBall, has officially been charged and convicted of Lola's murder, the drug racketeering and stalking," he said.

Markus huffed out a laugh. "Good for him. Now maybe he'll finally stay the fuck away. I think the last time he came by your house you were about ready to just shoot his dick off," he said, shaking his head.

Bo shrugged with a smug smirk. "He caught a glimpse of you after a shower. Call me protective, but when someone stalks my partner, I tend to have some issues with that," he replied. Markus rolled his eyes. Drying his hands, he let the glasses sit for the moment. The music went from nearly being able to hear every word of the song and shaking the glasses free from the shelves down to a dull roar, like it was supposed to be.

"Finally," Markus groaned, rubbing at his ears and pulling the earbuds from his ears. Most of the people that worked there had specialized buds that canceled out certain things, allowing them to hear their customers. It made it interesting since they had to point their ear at their customers, but they worked.

He dropped one of them into one pocket and rubbed at the ear before replacing his other one. "Can you give me some soda? I think I'm done for the night," Bo drawled, putting his empty cup down before him.

Markus just smirked, muttered curses about loud music and idiot DJ's, and served up a cola to his lover.

8/26/2019

Prompt: hole

"Wow," the young boy breathed, standing next to his brother as the other boy dropped a large rock down it. They waited but didn't hear it hit bottom. "How far down is it?" he asked, looking at his brother.

The teen shrugged. "No one is sure," he said, rocking on his feet. "I'm thinkin' pretty deep. It's an old mining vent," he continued. "Grandpa and great-grandpa used to work the mines. They tell all sorta stories about finding animals that used ta fall down the vents since they had ta be so big. There are some that aren't covered cause when they were being covered, they couldn't find 'em all." He looked at his brother, the younger male wide eyed as he stared down it.

"You think they ever found a body because someone fell down it?" he asked.

The older male shrugged. "Once. Some kid got kidnapped and then shoved down one. Said that he was taken by a pedo," he said. "They found him the next morning. Never found out who did it either."

"Wow," the younger male said, continuing to stare down the hole before looking up at his brother. "Who was the kid?" he asked.

The older brother rocked on his feet. "Grandpa's baby brother," he said.

The younger stared, mouth open. "Just like dad's middle brother," he breathed, the elder shrugging but nodding. "Our family seems to have a lot of issues like this."

The elder shrugged again. "We're not exactly liked around here. Too much Native American in us for us to be liked by a white bread town," he said, walking around towards where a rock sat. The top was red and looked out of place seeing as it had been obviously placed on the flat rock that it sat upon. Picking it up, he weighed it and thought about the stories that his grandfather told him when his baby brother had been born.

Walking up behind the younger of them, he hefted the rock up as his brother started to turn. In a split second, the entire exchange changed. The smaller boy twisted out of the way of the descending rock, throwing the older boy off balance just enough for his brother to twist around him and push his back.

Standing over the hole, he listened to the older boys screams before they came to an abrupt halt. Standing straight, he brushed off his pants and pulled out his phone. He called his grandfather first. "You were right. Older brothers are idiots," he said, getting a soft chuckle.

" _Your father said the same thing when it was time for his sacrifice. I'll call the police in worry that you haven't returned from the area,_ " the man promised.

"Thanks, grandpa," the little boy chirped, hanging up and sitting under some shade. He pulled out a bottle of water from their bags and sipped at it, waiting for the police to find him. He would have to put those acting skills to good use.

8/27/2019

Prompt: cockroach

It was scuttling around just outside of his hiding space, clicking and hissing. Slumping down and hoping that the mud and dust on his skin and clothes would be enough to discourage the fucker from hanging around.

Once upon a time the world worried about global warming and trying to fix the ozone layer. Once upon a time, a group of scientists had some politicians push through laws to change the way they treated the environment. First in America, and then later through the world. Once upon a time everyone loved it!

Crops grew twice as big with half of the water and soil control. Animals were happier and more plentiful for the world around. People were living longer because everything was so much better than they had been in a long time!

The cockroaches were small and squishy.

But what they didn't remember is that at one time such bugs were as big as a normal man because the air around them was so rich in things that encouraged big everything. And humans didn't really mutate as fast as bugs.

A normal human could grow up to about eight feet tall now. There were a few that were growing up to around ten feet or so, but the bugs...especially cockroaches outpaced them in such a way that they had to build giant steel walls and domes to keep them out. The first enclosed city had been built when people had started to find larger than normal cockroaches and other bugs that were attacking humans.

From there, those that could, moved into the cities while others created protected homes that were steel and cement in small areas. He had been heading to one to deliver letters from the main city to a smaller city that was going to join them soon. Once the homes had been built.

Luckily the cities had been built to be expanded after the areas had been cleared out. The city that he lived in was settled in the middle of what used to be known as Ohio, the small settlement that was joining his city near the border of the original state borders.

But here he was, a days' walk away from the border, his car hidden away in a specialized house while he looked for old books or things that could be used in the cities. A cockroach hunting him down. He didn't want to deal with fighting the damn bug.

He hated having to clean himself from the guts and inside of the giant creatures. It always took forever to get off, and a person still stank for a good day after. Listening to the bug shuffle off, he blew out his breath silently, eyes falling shut and relaxing against his wall.

Who had known fixing the damn world had been such a bad idea.

8/28/2019

Prompt: there's someone in the house

Sitting up in bed, Tristian frowned as his cat lifted her head, murring softly in question. "There's someone in the house," he hummed, stroking a hand down her back. He knew that the person was probably someone he knew otherwise the alarm would have gone off if it had been cut from power that wasn't an electrical issue. Sliding out of his bed, he padded out into the kitchen, finding his neighbor sitting at his counter, playing with a cup while the electric kettle heated water.

Sighing, he turned off the kettle, noting the instant coffee in front of Lee, and started a pot of coffee. "Again man?" he asked, shaking his head. "This chick is insane."

"I've changed the lock on my door," Lee admitted, shifting to stand up straight. "I just don't want to deal with her pounding on the door in about an hour when she can't get in."

"You're lucky that most of the apartments are being refurnished. If Mrs. Kertus was still living on this floor, she would have hit her with her cane," Tristian said, shaking his head but smiling at his friend. "So, what's going on?"

"I decided not to drink tonight and got to thinking," Lee admitted, watching the coffee perk. "Thinking about how she does the shit she does. And thinking that she can just come back, expecting me to swallow it and let her continue on." He sighed as Tristian dumped some sugar into his cup and then dumped two single serve creamers in Oreo flavor.

Tristian poured coffee for them and sat on one of his bar stools. "What else did you do? If you're here, you probably did more than change some locks."

Lee groaned and drank some of his coffee. "I packed her shit. I'm going to stick it in a weekly storage place, get it out of the way, and drop the keys off at her work. I stuck a suitcase with her work clothes and shit like that outside of the door. I'm just waiting for the place I'm using to open up," he admitted.

Tristian gave his friend a look. "And you broke into my place to make coffee and hide from her huh?" he asked.

Lee smirked and sipped his coffee as the sound of pounding came down the hall followed by screeching. Tristian groaned and padded into his room, finding his cat giving him a glare before stalking out to get all the attention from his friend. He was going to call the cops and get her to shut up and then take his friend to the storage unit.

His truck would hold her shit. He didn't particularly care if it was threatening to rain either.

8/29/2019

Prompt: Miniature

Staring at the small figurine, he moved his jewelers magnifying glass around so that he could get a better look at it. It was a simplistic model, a miniature, but still gorgeously set up to be built.

He smiled and carefully placed it on the padded stand that he could move around as he needed to. Once it was settled back against the paint stained cotton, he carefully chose his first color, the base for the rest of the paint, and dipped a thinly tipped brush in it.

The paint went over the miniature face with ease, spreading out with a little wiggling of the brush before finding the right lines and in a single, light layer. Setting that piece to the side on another piece of cotton that covered a board with rolls of batting to create a well to hold them, he turned to the next piece.

By the time that he was done with the base coat, he was ready for a cup of hot chocolate, a light snack, and a bit of stretching. Sighing, he stood and stretched his arms up over his head with a low groan. Picking up his travel mug, he padded up the stairs to the kitchen from his basement workspace. His roommate raised an eyebrow before he turned back to making a sandwich.

He pulled down a puck of Mexican hot chocolate and cut off two of the sections, dropping them into a pot. By the time he had added the milk and heated the concoction to the right temperature, his roommate had finished making his sandwich and had made one for him, leaving with his plate to his own office.

Smiling, he poured his hot chocolate, the scent of cinnamon and cocoa mingling in the air, before grabbing his plate and heading down to his miniature. He wondered if he could get most of the base colors done before he started to assemble it.

8/30/2019

Prompt: Ridicule

They had laughed and taunted him through their high school years. But now, they were coming back for a ten-year reunion. In the ten years since they had graduated, he had gotten his master's degree in business with a specialization in small business, wrote ten books, and sold his first book nearly five years before.

Since that first book, he had reworked the seven books that were a part of a series, rewriting books eight and nine and putting them out as stand-alones in the same world.

Ryland shoved his hands into his pockets as he stood, staring out of the window of his rather nice house.

He had moved from Los Angeles the day that he had graduated, heading to Las Vegas for college. He had a shitty little apartment with a fellow business student and started working as a floor waiter for a casino. By the time that he graduated from college, he had an agent for his books and was rewriting that first book to make it even better and working as a floor manager for the waiters. It had paid good money and staying in that shitty little apartment had allowed him to build quite the nest egg.

When he graduated from college, he had been contacted by one of those who had ridiculed his writing when they had learned that he wrote. A short horror story had been bought and published in a small anthology series and it had gotten good reviews. They learned that he had kept selling stories and had asked who he had sucked the dick of to get sold.

He had simply ignored them as he had in high school and continued to work hard on his books. And now, he owned a lovely house on a hill with views to die for. He was a world-renowned writer and he was bringing out more books every year.

Ryland snorted and turned away from his window. "This will be interesting." His pit huffed at him before groaning under his scratching hand, leaning into it with a wiggle of his tail. "I hope that you don't mind staying with Ally. Can't take you with me on this trip unfortunately big boy." The pit just groaned and gave him puppy eyes. He snorted and patted his head, heading into his bedroom to pack up for the week-long trip.

He was going to enjoy seeing where his fellow classmates had ended up in life. Most especially Aaron.

8/31/2019

Prompt: Butterfly

She was such a pretty little thing. Soft and fluttery like a butterfly and colored just like one to. Just like the Malabar Banded Peacock butterfly. With pretty green hair that faded from a dark green down to a lighter one, and eyes a rich black shade, she was all delicate sweeping locks and gentle touches.

He wanted her. Desperately.

Adding another picture of her, he smiled softly as he adjusted the pinned specimen of the Malabar Banded Peacock. He had gotten lucky that the local butterfly farm allowed them to collect the dead or dying butterflies for a small price and that he had found the butterfly fully intact. It fit his little one so very well and he wanted to show her it eventually.

Smiling as he adjusted the picture of her, he looked to his other little butterfly. His little Western Tiger Swallowtail. Her hair was a natural custard blond color. He would know, seeing as he had watched her every hair appointment. Her eyes were a dark brown, almost black. And she was even more delicate than the one he was watching currently.

But he had already caught her. She stared at him with dull eyes, making him sigh and brush her hair out of her face. She had lost so much of the prettiness that had drawn him that he worried that he had waited too long. "Ah, nothing I can do but be smart next time," he mused. He smiled and patted her cheeks. "Don't worry. You'll be quite the pretty little butterfly pinned in a box for me," he cooed.

She didn't even twitch and continued to stare at him with blank eyes. Standing straight, he left the room to prepare to pin his pretty little swallowtail. 


	4. Week 4: Sep 1 to Sep 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for the Warnings: Dates to be wary of: 9/2 – Butter (Murder, Cheating), 9/3 – Sex (speaks of m/m sex but due to it still being about sex, warning), 9/7 – Kill (Killing, some purple prose about blood, not so sane characters)
> 
> Yes, I have updated the rating, and added some new tags where I needed to due to the darker nature of some of my drabbles. I am a horror writer (when I'm not experimenting in some odd things and writing erotica and romance) so some of these will get darker as it goes along.
> 
> There is a reason why I said MATURE.

9/1/2019

Prompt: Holiday

"Happy fucking Halloween," she grumbled, dropping the bowl of candy onto the table with a growl. She stalked into the living room, finding her brother watching some cutesy Halloween show, looking amused. "Goddess above, these kids are watching some seriously odd things," she said.

"Oh?" Brian asked, looking away from the TV to look at Brinda with a smile. "And why is that?" he asked.

"I saw no less than five Sakura's from Naruto, three Deku's from My Hero Academia, and at least five Naruto's from Naruto. It's like these kids only know the new anime. I swear if I see Dragon Ball Z characters walk up next, I'm going to force you to answer the door for the rest of the night," she warned him.

Brian chuckled and shook his head. "Calm down, brat," he said. "I saw quite a few Spiderpeople running around. Some SpiderGwens especially," he continued. "They were cute."

"I bet," Brinda sighed, flopping back and adjusting her dress. She had gone for a rather stereotypical Morticia Addams outfit while Brian wore a male version of Wednesday Addams outfit. Alex, who was in the kitchen making candy and caramel apples for the party that they would be throwing in just under thirty minutes was wearing a rather simple pair of doe-skin pants with a shirt with puffy sleeves.

They hadn't had the chance to go buy new costumes, so had to make-due with whatever they had in house. Alex with clothes that he wore when he went to see his grandfather, and the siblings in older costumes that they still fit in.

"What about Transformers? I hear that it's making a come-back again," she asked.

"Some very well-made Bumblebees, a few store-bought Optimus, and two Arcees. First gen, not the movies," he replied, checking the time. "I'll get the trick or treaters for the next while, okay?" he asked. "You have to go mix the drinks and make sure that everyone has a designated driver."

Brinda checked the time on her phone before groaning. "Yeah, you're right," she sighed, pushing herself up. "Happy fucking Halloween," she grumbled as she headed into the kitchen to make punch bowls for the party.

9/2/2019

Prompt: Butter

Making sure the small pot was warm, she cut a chunk of the butter off the stick and let it drop, watching as it sizzled before adding another chunk. Taking her small wooden spoon, she stirred the chunks around while her friend cheerfully hummed, stirring the popcorn as it popped in a pan. "Movie nights are great ideas," her friend chirped.

"I like it," she replied, smiling over her shoulder before returning to her butter melting. Adding a bit more, she wrapped the stick of butter up again and stuck it into her refrigerator. Returning to the butter, she continued to stir it around until it was fully melted.

She smiled at her friend and pulled out a special spice mix that she had made for the other woman before pulling the pan off the stove. Once she was sure that the butter had cooled just enough and her friend had separated out the popcorn bowls, she poured the hot butter over the popcorn, adding the mix onto her friend's popcorn. She just added a touch of salt to her own popcorn.

Settling in, they started to watch the movie. Halfway through, she ignored the way the popcorn bowl of her friend thumped to the ground and her friend made desperate little gasping sounds. She continued to eat her popcorn as the movie ended, the other woman still gasping, telling her that she had measured just right for a very slow death.

"You know. We've been friends since we were in diapers. When we discovered what boys were and how much fun they were, we promised not to cheat on our friendship by sleeping with the other's boyfriend, or ex. And later when I came out as bi, you promised not to sleep with any girlfriend that I had," she mused, picking up the last bits of popcorn and eating them as she watched her friend. "Imagine my surprise to find you texting with my boyfriend."

Her friend's eyes widened as she reached out and picked up her phone, opening it with little trouble before pulling up the text conversation.

She whistled. "Racy. Promising to wear the little black bra and panties for him the next time I was cramming for a mid-term or finals to take away his frustration. Promising to suck his brains out. How rude of you to break our promises to each other," she sighed. She left the messages for the moment. "You see, I never once thought you would be that type of girl. If you had been interested in him, I would have let you go after him. Instead, you didn't tell me, and I went after him. And you broke your promise to me," she drawled.

The girl shuddered at the blank, cold smile that was sent to her. "Wha..."

"What did I poison you with? Oh, just a little bit of that and a little bit of this. See, my mother was an apprentice to a very special kind of person. There are only two in any part of the world after all. No more than ten at a time. Five masters and five apprentices. She couldn't take me on as an apprentice," she said, putting her bowl down to the side. "I don't like killing just to kill after all. But she did teach me everything she knows. Including how to kill without being detected." She smiled.

The other woman felt her move, her eyesight to blurry to tell what she was doing, slim hands sliding under her armpits and shifting her to lie down. It was a well-known move between them. She was then covered in a blanket and her friend patted her head.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to kill my boyfriend. I have him trained just the way I want him to be. He wouldn't have been answering your texts after tonight anyways," she hummed. "He's such a good boy." Her friend gasped twice more before falling silent. She smiled and moved to clean up the evidence before she called the police in the morning. Her boyfriend was waiting in the bedroom after all.

9/3/2019

Prompt: Sex

"Okay. Tell me. Is he asking you to let him fuck you? Or are you trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, and he just wants to talk about the future and what you want out of it?" Tristian asked, looking at Lee, getting a moan from the younger male. He had come home to find his friend lying on his couch, his one-eyed cat happily loafing on the man's chest and purring away.

The first words out of his mouth had been that the other man had wanted to talk about their sex lives. But he had pushed it off and run, freaking out about sex. Before he had started to date his current partner, he had only ever dated women, appreciating men from afar but wanting them just the same.

Lee groaned. "I don't know which way he was talking about it," he admitted, fingers scratching at a spot on the cat and getting a louder purr. "I've played. What bi male doesn't play to figure out what he wants. But seriously, I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do," he said, thumping his head against the couches arm.

Tristian rolled his eyes and held up his phone. "Well, he texted me to ask why you would run away from him trying to talk about what you want out of the relationship. You just did get out of a fucked up long term one after all," he drawled.

Lee moved the cat from his chest down onto the floor, getting a yawn and stretch before she strutted off. "I actually don't even know what to say about it," he said. "I really don't know what I want. Right now, I'm having fun, yes, but seriously? I'm just not sure what I want." He rubbed a hand over his hair, mussing the neat strands.

Tristian hummed. "So, tell him that then. Tell him right now you're enjoying being with him, but you don't know what you want or need for the future. He's a pretty easy-going guy. And if he starts to press for something you're not comfortable with, break it off," he told him. He shook his head at the hum as Lee swung his legs off the couch. "And charge your damn phone. Would ya? It goes straight to voicemail."

Lee cursed and checked his phone, finding it in 'do not disturb' mode, turning it back up. He sighed at the text messages that he had gotten and rubbed at his face. He sent one back asking for a bit of time to get his thoughts straightened out before they talked. "Well, I told him that I needed time to think things out. Maybe he'll be fine with me dealing with things and all that."

Tristian huffed. "I have no doubt that he will be. Now, are you going to help me make dinner or are you going to sit there twiddling your thumbs? You put enough money in the food jar that I could afford to actually get some good shit," he drawled.

Lee smiled at him and pushed off the couch, meandering over. "Yeah, I suppose I can. What are we havin' tonight?" he asked.

"Hamburgers," was the reply as Tristian held up a bag of fresh buns from the bakery down the street. "Got the good stuff."

Lee's smile grew. "Lovely."

9/4/2019

Prompt: Happy

"I'm so happy," he sang, hugging his cat close and getting a complaint from her. "Just so damn happy." David smiled as his teacher rolled his eyes, watching the younger male twirl around.

"You're also very hyper," Rye drawled, shaking his head in some humor. "Stop being so hyper."

David stuck his tongue out before smiling and flopping down next to the long-haired man. "I can't help it. They're coming home, and I can finally tell off the pushy asshole off."

Rye hummed, flipping the book in his lap open, deciding to allow his student to have his happy moment. When his own lovers had arrived in his life, he had been very happy himself, especially when they had to separate from each other for their own jobs.

David smiled as he pressed his nose into the soft fur of Maria. She had been a gift from the other man when he had graduated from high school and they had quickly bonded. "Are they going to come home soon?" he asked, lifting his head. Rye sent him a curious look. "Your lovers."

"Ah, right. Yes, they will. Soon I hope," he hummed, returning to his books and crossing his legs. "How long before your twins arrive?" he asked.

David hummed and checked the time. "In about four hours or so. Why?" he asked.

"Have you cleaned your room?" Rye asked, David nodding. "Changed the sheets and the such?" he continued.

"Last night," David replied. "Did laundry and reorganized our bathroom and the such." He shifted, Maria sprawling out on her back over his arm. "Why?"

"I figured that if you had time, you would like to go stock up the refrigerator to make sure you didn't have to leave the house for a few days," was the drawled response. Rye placed his book to the side and stood up with a smirk. David made a considering sound but pushed himself up and off the couch, padding after him with a smile.

David ran to the room that he shared with his lovers and grabbed his shoes, shoving his wallet into a back pocket along with his phone. He met Rye at the door, the older male locking up behind them before unlocking his car doors, allowing his smaller student to climb in first. It took them close to an hour to gather everything that they could think of to stock up on and pay before leaving with their supplies.

David shooed Rye out of the kitchen to put things away, the other man rolling his eyes and going to his own room to clean it up. His own partners would be home soon enough, and it was always a better idea for him to clean up early instead of late. When the twins arrived, Rye smiled and made sure that he was hidden away, leaving the three to reconnect after two weeks apart.

He woke up only long enough to greet his own lovers, who had arrived much sooner than he had thought before falling back into sleep.

9/5/2019

Prompt: Press

Ryland groaned as he dropped onto the bed in his bed and breakfast, thankful that there was one in a gated community. Maria sighed and shook her head, going for her own room. "I hate press conferences," he groaned, rubbing at his face.

"Of course you do," Maria called out. "They always ask about your love life, or lack thereof, and want to know what you're working on now." She walked back to stand in the doorway. Smiled. "You just hate having to deal with the asinine questions that you get every damn time you do this."

Ryland groaned and pushed himself up. "Yes, I do. Who I'm dating is none of their business. Did they ask who Stephen King was fucking when he was starting out? No. Because they respected his privacy. Do they ask other authors who they're fucking? No. But me? They always ask," he grumbled, standing up. "I'm going to unpack, wash off the stench of press, and then head into the main city to pick up a few things."

"I got food delivered," Maria said, raising an eyebrow. Ryland wrinkled his nose and shook it.

"You most likely ordered meat burgers without thinking that I can't eat cow, to," he drawled.

Maria blushed, knowing that she had forgotten that her brother had discovered some allergies through his years away from family. While he was working on his college degree, meat was usually too expensive for him, and he didn't like fast food. He had found out that he had had less stomach issues since he had cut out hamburger, sticking to mostly 'white' meats and the only occasional buffalo or deer if he wanted a hamburger.

"Right. The closest place to get the better meat is about twenty minutes away," she said, shaking her head. "Change and put on sunglasses. I have a simple car rented so that you can go out without the press hounding you."

"Thanks," Ryland sighed, pushing up and off his bed, heading out with the keys, his cards, and the address. He hoped that the press would leave him alone for a few days before he had to worry about the meet and greet before the reunion.

9/6/2019

Prompt: Evil/Nuts/Pipe

The demon snarled, getting a bored look from the woman with a coke can in her hands. She simply raised one silver colored eyebrow before tossing an almond at it, making it jerk and blink in surprise. "Dude. Did you just come to bug a night shift manager on her smoking break at a gas station?" she asked.

The demon growled and started to crawl out a bit more from the portal. She sighed, dropped the half-smoked cigarette to the ground and absently squashed it, putting her can aside. Digging around in one pocket, she pulled out another pack of cigarettes, this pack with a cross on the front. Tapping one out, she took a sniff of it, making sure that the items within was still fresh and ready for what she was about to do.

Nodding, she tapped out a long cigarette, the sweetness of roses wafting from it. Sticking the filter into a corner of her mouth, she watched as the demon continued to try to crawl out of the hole that it had opened it. She shoved the pack back into her back pocket, tossing another nut at the demon again.

This time the demon jerked back as the almond scored a direct hit it's eye, grunting in pain.

The momentary distraction allowed her to pull out a lighter and light the cigarette, holding the first puff in, wiggling it back and forth. Finally getting it just right, she carefully aimed it towards the demon's open mouth. Flicking the cigarette into the open mouth, she smirked as it automatically closed it's mouth.

It took only a moment before the creature started to cry out in pain, spitting out the filter of the cigarette before it retreated into the portal. It closed behind it with a snap and she popped an almond into her mouth, chewing with a snort.

Picking up her soda can, she headed to the backdoor and pulled it open, letting it fall shut. "I swear that these demons get stupider every year," she complained. Brian looked up from where he was setting up the new system and shook his head with a smile.

"No. We humans are getting smarter in how we deal with them. There are some dangerous beings out there after all," he drawled. "Tell me, how did you deal with it?"

"Almonds, and a holy smoker."

Brian paused and gave her a look. "You used a pipe on him?" he yelped, getting a smirk. "Oh! Good lord. Those damn things are such a pain."

9/7/2019

Prompt: Kill

He liked it when they died by his hands. Their pretty life spilling out around whatever he had slid into their skin.

Once it had been a pair of trimming scissors shoved deep into her throat. The spray had made such a pretty abstract painting that he had gone home to replicate it with paint. It was still sitting in his own art room, sharing the space with three other pieces from the times that others had died by his hands.

Frowning to himself as the news called him a 'serial killer', he huffed as he flopped back in his recliner. "I am not a killer. I do not 'kill' them. I simply help them to die and leave their miserable lives," he snorted, crossing his legs. His sister rolled her eyes and continued to embroider whatever it was she had decided to do.

"Right. Because shoving a knife into a woman's gut is a nice way of helping them to leave this Earth," she drawled.

"Better than a slow death by poison," he returned. He smiled as he remembered when his father finally died; their mother had gotten tired of his idiocy and need to sleep with anything on two legs, regardless of age, race or gender. Luckily for all, he was just mostly an absent father.

Didn't mean that they hadn't enjoyed watching him take poison pill after poison pill trying to get it up for his little concubines.

"Is the list almost done?" his sister asked, flipping a page in her book.

"Just about. I have about eight more. I'm sure if they dug a little deeper, they'd learn that the ones I'm after right now had our father in connection," he drawled. He rested his chin on a fist and stared at the computer. "The last one provided him with her underage sister. It really is too bad that one of the rules is that if our target is underage at the time of their indiscretion, we are unable to touch them."

His sister looked at him from the corner of one eye. "We all made the same vow and the magic holds us to it, brother mine. I really do not want to see Aran _or_ Kilen pop up because we broke those vows. You know they will too." She settled back into her corner of the couch and curled her legs up next to her hips. "Just keep to the list and start making them look like suicide."

"But that's Aran's deal," he whined before huffing. "Fine. I'll call and get some suggestions from him about how to do it," he said. His sister rolled her eyes and turned back to her book.


	5. Week 5: Sep 8 to Sep 14, 2019

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for the week:
> 
> 9/9: Has some mild body horror (peeling skin, demonic possession)
> 
> 9/11: Has torture in very vague terms but still.
> 
> (I will restart this series on 9/12/20 hopefully. Here's hoping)

9/8/2019

Prompt: Attic

The stairs creaked as she used the rope to pull them open. Unfolding them, Brinda looked at her shoes before looking up at the stairs to the attic. "Gotta change them," she muttered, heading for her bedroom on the bottom floor. "Why am I on the first floor again?" she asked Alex as she passed by.

"So that you don't have to hear what me and your brother get up to in our bedroom," Alex called back. Brinda groaned, pulling off her heeled boots and replaced them with a pair of flats that Brian had set out for her.

"I'm just glad that I wore jeans today," she said as she passed by Alex once more. "Are you coming up?"

"In a moment. I'm replacing batteries," he replied, unscrewing the top of the heavy-duty flashlight.

Brinda hummed and bounded back up the stairs towards the second floor and her brother. She had only been up there once, blessing the entire area through the very carefully laid out items that allowed them to walk, but not since then. The three of them had decided to wait until they had the rest of the house fixed before digging through things. Grabbing the three lanterns, she hooked them to her belt and turned one on so that she had light going up. With light on her, she started to climb the steep stair-ladder, using the side railings to get up into the attic space.

Standing in the middle of the room, a few feet from the stairs, she unhooked the first lantern and looked around. "Now, I know that we left a step ladder up here," she muttered, finding that it had been put aside after they had been done with it. Unfolding it, she set it under a lantern hook that had been a left-over from the early days of the house. Alex had made sure that it was still good, the chain not rusted, and the spot that it was hanging from, still good.

Climbing up the ladder, she carefully hooked the first lantern onto it and turned up the brightness as much as she could, throwing light. Looking around, her eyebrows rose.

"It looks as if they used this attic as living space," she said as Alex climbed up, his flashlight hooked in his belt. "I can see about five more chained lantern hooks, and a few spots where candles would be placed behind glass."

Alex hummed and helped her step down before taking her spot on the step ladder, frowning as he caught sight of what she had seen. Using his flashlight, he scanned the darker areas and found more lantern hooks and candle shelves. "We'll have to get some more re-chargeable lanterns and things like that," he said.

Brinda smiled and nodded, watching her friend step down. "Shall we start here and work our way inwards?" she asked, looking around while rocking on her feet. Alex hummed and nodded.

"Yeah. It'll be easier. Since we're moving boxes and trunks down as we start going through things to the dining room, it'll be faster to just work inwards." He reached down and took the large backpack with everything that they needed in it. He then took half of the cooler that they had packed so that they didn't have to go down unless they had to use the bathroom.

Setting up their small station, Brian joined them, and they pulled on specialized gloves that most antique dealers used to go through things. It would protect their hands and the pieces as they went through everything. Brinda turned to her first pile and smiled as she adjusted her bandana, ready to take on the last part of their house and making it truly theirs: The Attic.

If she could find things that they could donate to the local museum, even better.

9/9/2019

Prompt: Possessed

The body he had chosen to use was flaking. Not like paint that flakes off the side of the house through years of rain, wind and sun, but as if the layers of skin were curling upwards, leaving red welts in their wake. Clicking his tongue, he stared at the bits of skin that had already come off his shoulder. "I should have chosen a better soul," he mused.

He felt the soul that he had pushed down stir, making him frown.

"This one is much to pure for a being such as myself, but desperate times call for desperate measures." Looking away from the mirror, he found the first aid kit and started to patch his body up just enough to hold on while he finished off his work.

He silenced the soul of the body once more, frowning at how short it had been since the last time that he had had to quiet it into sleep. It was getting harder to keep such souls quiet while he used their bodies, but there was just no other way to do some of the things that he had to deal with.

Shaking those thoughts off, he left the bathroom and pulled on clothing, brushed out the hair of the chosen body. He made sure that none of the bandages and gauze showed and tugged on a pair of shoes.

He only had a bit more time to use the body that had been offered up before the soul fully awoke and pushed him out. If that soul continued to live in the body would be based on how much longer he kept it under his control. He doubted that the one who he had taken over would walk away without scars that were deep if the peeling was any indication.

Too bad that when he touched an open wound on the body that he had to feel it. Otherwise he would have just snipped off the skin that was lifting and make sure the wound didn't become infected.

Really too bad.

9/10/2019

Prompt: Confidence, Forest, River

He had told her once that when in the forest, you needed to find the river and be confident in that it would lead her home. If it led you to a cliff, you went back upstream and continued to follow the river. It would always lead you right, you just had to figure out which way to go.

Looking up at the sky and noting the way the sun was working its way down towards the horizon, she decided that it was probably a good idea to find a place to sleep. Frowning, she continued up along the river, feeling that following it upstream would be the best idea for the time being. The next morning, it might be better to go down river, or it might stay upriver. It was always different, and she always woke up in a new part of the forest.

Finding a small area near the river's edge, she placed her bag down and started to move things around carefully so that she didn't have to worry about burning the forest down accidently. She moved the leaves around in a circle and laid several stones down. Using a small shovel, she moved the dirt to a ring around the hole, making sure the dirt wouldn't just fall into the fire pit.

With that done, she moved away from the area and dug a hole to use as her temporary bathroom, making sure it was as far away from the river as she dared. With that done, she went back to the river and washed her hands and the shovel before walking back to the camp. She put the shovel away and pulled out a small hatchet out, making sure the cover was still on it.

She walked around the area around her chosen camp site and found several deadwoods that she felt okay with using for wood for the night, keeping the small sticks for kindling. Going back and forth three times, she soon had enough wood for the night.

With heat taken care of, she was quick to put up the her tent tarp, using three trees to hang it at a slant. She then added two of the sides onto the tent, the tarp hanging just enough over the fire pit to keep any rain off. She placed her sleeping bag somewhat close to the fire pit but still somewhat out of the way.

Standing back, she smiled to herself, surprised that she had gotten all of that done with more than enough time to forage for fruits and berries. She still had a lot of the jerky that her boyfriend had made, so she wasn't hurting for meat. But fresh fruits and vegetables would be a lovely thing for her at that moment.

Leaving the campsite, she felt that she was doing good enough to last until the river once more lead her home. She was confident that it and the forest itself appreciated, in some small way, that she was taking the time to treat them with respect while lost.

And it made her warm with happiness.

9/11/2019

Prompt: Unyeilding

She would never bend or break.

She would never speak or cry what they wanted.

She had been trained to withstand the tortures that they had placed upon her body and then some. She was no stranger to pain and would never be a stranger to such things.

She stared at them and sneered, spitting out the blood that had flooded her mouth when they had hit her in the face, cutting her cheek on teeth. She smiled a bloody smile and asked if that was all they had.

They went to work, trying to get to her break...bend...do something beyond laugh and spit out blood or cough and wheeze each time they hit somewhere. They worked until they were sweating and all she could do was stare at them with bruised eyes that were dull from pain but still unwilling to give them what they wanted.

She cackled, the sound wheezing and soft, as her partners broke in and took them down in a flurry of knives and carefully placed shots to body parts that wouldn't kill them. She greeted the group of four with a bloody smile and a question asking them where they had been.

Her leader smiled in return, released her and set her into one of the recliner chairs that the idiots had been using to sit between beatings. She groaned and settled in to wait for their medical team to come in. She watched as her group carefully made sure that the idiots would bleed out and cuffed them before starting to collect evidence. She watched around the medical team fluttered around her, asking questions that she absently answered as she was checked over.

She told them how she had kept her secrets and would have continued to keep her secrets no matter what they were planning to do to her. Her leader smiled and smoothed a bit of her matted hair back, telling her she did good and now she had to rest until she was cleared. That the entire team was on case clean up to make sure nothing was left unturned.

Someone had targeted her as being the second longest on the team, and they had wanted information on certain cases. She would tell them what she remembered, and they would use the tapes that the bastards had recorded while torturing her.

Smiling once more, she carefully rinsed out her mouth using the special water mixture and allowed the doctor to make sure the wound in her mouth wasn't bleeding any more. She was then placed onto a stretcher, an IV placed into her arm and she was rolled out to the waiting helicopter that would take her to their medical building.

She fell into a light doze on the way there, listening to the sounds of those around her and knowing that she was safe.

That she had stayed true to her beliefs and trust in her team.

9/12/2019

Prompt: Calm, Watch, Mouse

It was a quiet night. Calm outside of the ticking of the pocket watch that sat on his desk and his mouse as she squeaked at him from her cage. He smiled at her for a moment before turning back to the window in front of him. He sat back, rocking his legs back and forth, and frowned. He pushed a bit of his hair out of his face, wondering just what he was going to do in the long run about the letter that he had gotten.

Looking down, he reached down and pulled it closer to himself.

_We are regretfully writing you this day to tell you..._

He sighed and stopped reading the letter, already knowing what it said, having read it a dozen times since he had gotten it. The letter came from his father's lawyers, telling him that the man had died and left things for him in the will. He had to leave his small home, the home that he had inherited from his mother and had moved into the day that he had turned eighteen.

When his father had learned that he dared to date whoever caught his attention for more than two seconds, the atmosphere in the house had been tense. More so than normal since they hadn't really gotten along with each other then. And less so in the last few years ever since he had started to write about gay couples, shopping his manuscripts around.

Now that he had three books out, was gaining a good amount of people reading and buying his books, and was happy with how life was going, his father died. Leaving him things.

Knowing his luck, the man had decided to add a bunch of 'you need to do this to get this' clauses. He sighed, checked the time on his pocket watch, and clicked it close. He stood up and walked over to his mouse, making sure she had water, before placing the heavy blanket around it, allowing just a very thin strip of the blanket to allow light in.

Checking the radiator, he turned it down to just enough to keep the room warm enough for the little mouse in her cage, before turning off the lights. The night light popped on as he walked through the house, locking doors and windows before he headed up to the loft where his bedroom was.

Giving his brand-new cat a stroke down her back, he stripped, put on new clothes and set his power alarms. Should the power die, he knew he would have to get up and get the fire going so that the house stayed warm for all of them.

Sighing, he stretched with a groan, he flopped back onto the bed and decided that he would worry about the will reading the next day. When he had to go to the lawyers. And not before.

9/13/2019

Prompt: Believe, Club, Chaos

The music was late nineties, early two-thousands, Cher pumping through the speakers and getting the club dancing. He was enjoying himself, pressed against his boyfriend as he smiled and celebrated his twenty-first birthday. He had turned twenty-one the day before, having decided to truly celebrate when he had a day off. His boyfriend had been all for it and had set up a wonderful day.

They had spent most of the day in the chaos that was Little Tokyo, going from shop to shop, picking up things for their new apartment kitchen stock. They had gotten so many spices and ingredients that they couldn't otherwise find for a good price that they had christened the kitchen counter after putting things away.

After that, they had an early dinner at the old fashioned diner that they had their first date at, going for lighter foods instead of anything heavy. The chicken fingers and fries were still the best they had found over the four years that they had been together and dating. With food in their stomach, they had called for a ride, deciding that while they were going to drink, they were going to be smart.

From the restaurant, they joined in the club and had been dancing since the first song of the theme night. He had been introduced to alcohol with a light drink called 'Believe in Flights', which had been a sky blue with swirls of caramel on the sides and a strawberry shaped into an interesting bird. He had decided to stick to drinks that were light on the alcohol, not wanting to get drunk to fast if he did get drunk.

He smiled when his lover leaned down, lips brushing his ear and caramel scented breath flowing to his nose when he turned his head slightly. "Wanna stay or go home?" the man asked, promise heavy in his voice.

His lips curled upwards and rolled his hips. "Let's go home," he replied, tilting his head to say it directly into his lover's ear, getting a low chuckle. "Let's get some food on the way though," he continued. "Walk down to that store and pick up some finger foods." He felt his lover nod and they pulled apart, he hooking his arm in his boyfriends as they walked to get their coats from the coat check.

His boyfriend made sure that their tab was paid for in full as they handed over their drink bracelets and left the club. The cool air made him shiver and he pulled his jacket on, following his lover to the store. A strong arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him close, his own curling around the other man's back. "Best. Birthday. Ever."

"Good," the bigger male rumbled, pressing a kiss to his lover's lips as they continued to walk and just enjoy each other.

9/14/2019

Prompt: High

"This is...not cool," Rose breathed, clinging to his lover's hand and resolutely refusing to look out of the planes' window. Lex had surprised him with a trip to Hawaii for their anniversary. He was excited to be doing this, but the only issue he had was the fact that they had to fly to the island state.

"I know you hate flying, but, at the very least, first class has some double seats and you don't have to look out the window," Lex teased, patting his lover's head. "Look, drink some of your champagne and just breath," he said, getting a glare from his lover. "Calm down."

Rose huffed and stood the moment the plane leveled off and he could unbuckle. He went around his lover in their apartment seat and closed the blinds before sitting back down. "You're lucky that you bought these seats together," he said, flopping back into the extremely comfortable seat of the First-Class apartment. "And that the bed is big enough for us."

Lex smirked and offered him the menu. "I know. But I figured that first class apartments on a new plane with good reviews for the last year was a good idea," he said, Rose taking the menu. "And they have a good selection. The entire menu is customizable," he drawled. "I did warn them that you had minorish dairy issues, so they made sure we had the dairy light menu on hand," he continued.

Rose sighed and smiled as he picked up his flute of champagne that they had been handed the moment they had settled in. Sipping at the crisp drink, he looked over the menu, finding that each meat selection had two types of options for it, deciding to go with one of the chicken dishes for dinner in an hour. When the stewardess walked past, they placed their dinner orders in, along with their early morning coffee and a light breakfast.

They had a nearly eleven-hour flight due to a storm from that was brewing in the usual path of the plane, but they didn't mind. They had plans on enjoying their dinner then getting a cat nap. Rose also made sure that they had time booked to shower before breakfast along with a wake-up call for some coffee before-hand.

With everything planned out, they settled in to watch a movie, using the offered headphones and plugging into the jacks on their headphones. Rose pulled out his tablet to do some work on his next book while Lex stretched back and concentrated on the movie they had chosen.

Dinner was served on the table that the steward pulled out and set up for them, leaving them to eat and only coming to see to them when they needed a plate removed or a refill on their chosen drinks.

It was as they changed in a rather large bathroom that Lex asked Rose, "How are you holding up? Not feeling sick or anything?"

Rose shook his head as he pulled on the pants and shirt that had been left for them by the flight. "No. Nothing like that," he replied. He went to the sink and wet down a cloth. "I'm feeling better. That champagne actually helped calm my nerves. Usually I'd drink something light if I was in economy but that was probably a better option then like beer or something."

Lex chuckled as Rose started washing his face. "I can admit that it's always a good idea to have something light. The nice thing about first class though? Everything that you have here is paid up front with the ticket," he drawled, brushing out his hair before packing up the small laundry bag with their dirty clothes. "Come on. The bed should be ready for us," he said, tilting his head with a smile. 


End file.
